Maintenance

It's that time of the year again.... If you're involved in a church, then it's most likely that you've had your hands full with a production of some sort. If you're involved in theatre, this is the time it's most quite as the major season will usually draw to a close. In Australia, most of the regional performing arts centres will close and this is the time the techs will get busy with maintenance.

This is the time that's good for maintenance!

Maintenance is a necessary evil to keep a facility in tip top condition. It doesn't matter if you're a big or small venue, with corresponding technical inventory - keeping equipment in good working order is one way to reduce the odds of Murphy's law from kicking in the coming year.

Many people think that maintenance is about fixing or cleaning equipment. In actual fact, that's only partially true; maintenance is about knowing the condition any piece of equipment is in. I won't go into the full details of planned maintenance and its various incarnations, but I'll talk a little about tips to keep your gear happy over the years.

1) Schedule your maintenance
The easiest way to take care of your gear is to put is on a maintenance schedule. It doesn't have to be a complex diary of tasks that sucks all your time. I find that most equipment will perform a hundred percent better just with an annual inspection and maintenance routine. Put aside some time when it's quiet - for a lot of churches there are generally two periods; in July/August when Easter is over and Christmas production hasn't ramped up yet, or in January/February after all the Christmas productions and ham. Depending on the amount of gear, it could take a couple of hours for a few pieces or a day if there is more.

2) Plan the maintenance
Set a time for your maintenance. Most equipment will benefit from at least a yearly inspection, if nothing else. Annual items include amplifiers with fans will need to be cleaned, mic grilles cleaned or replaced, stage lighting fixtures' lenses to be washed and cleaned, all cables checked visually for fraying or loose strands, mixing console surface dusted, connections buffed, and so on..... The major quarterly item that requires some sort of visual check are projector filters.

3) Log your maintenance
Keep a logbook of all work that has been done on equipment, when a bulb was changed, who did the repairs. A logbook also eventually gives you an overview of the service life of a particular piece of equipment; whether there is a recurring problem happening in increasing frequency. It also helps the people who come after you to understand the issues and continue with the work.

4) Involve the team
Maintenance time is one of the best times to involve the entire team. Not only does it make the work lighter, but it'll build the team and give each one a good overview of the gear and how it works.

5) Outsourcing your maintenance
Now, for those of you who can't seem to find the time, energy or expertise to do your own maintenance, there is the option of outsourcing. Many companies offer maintenance packages at different levels and price points. If you're really tight on manpower, this is a good way to go as it relieves you of a major headache and you have the peace of mind that all the equipment is being looked after regularly.

Well, that's my thoughts on the subject for now. Have fun!

Technology

Interesting week for me.... two on the road performances for a one-man play performing as Charles Dickens narrating A Christmas Carol. During the last 16 years of his life, Charles Dickens gave 444 readings of his works in Great Britain, the United States and Europe to deafening acclaim. His and the public's favourite was A Christmas Carol.

We swung to both ends of technology for these two gigs - one was held in a community hall and another in a turn of the century church.

For the performance at St Peter's Anglican Church in Elmore, there was limited power available. We had two 10A power points to work with, hence low power lamps were the order of the day. For frontal lighting, we had two Selecon 650W PCs for some control, with 4 Par56 300W lamps giving us a general wash. This was complemented with four Par56 300W lamps for a cool and warm backlight. All these were controlled and powered off two quad dimmer/fader packs. The production manager ran the cues manually off the quad packs and managed to do a very respectable job.

The Rusty Divas performing in the church.

The two quad packs running the show at Elmore.

For the performance at the Heathcote RSL Hall, we were fortunate to have a three-phase power supply, hence I was able to bring in a Jands 12-channel dimmer and control all lx via my Macbook Pro running on Windows XP with the Robert Juliat Espion Console software. We set up a full galore of front, side and backlight for this performance, running off 55 cues off the Macbook. We also hired some pipe and drape to block off half of the hall in order to shrink the space and make it more 'theatrical' and intimate for the audience.

Phil Zachariah as Dickens at the Heathcote RSL Hall

Lighting control via a Macbook Pro with WinXP running the Robert Juliat Espion Console program

I think both shows were very successful despite limitations in terms of technical operations. You don't really need a lot of fancy gear if you've got a good production and some creativity and ingeniuty in making the equipment work for you in all kinds of different situations. I often raise an eyebrow when I meet people who send me a technical rider full of demands and requirements, some of which are never practical for touring smaller venues. I think many times, there is a need to go back to basics of the essence of what theatre and entertainment is all about. No amount of fancy gear can save a mediocre performance, but a brilliant performance can lift it beyond the physical limitations of a space.

In many of the projects I've work on, it's often I have to think out of the box to solve issues related to budget, physical limitations, and creative vision of the artistic team. Issues related to budgets are especially very real for the clients, and the technician that is able to see beyond the gear will go far in this field.....